Heavy rain batters roads, more in store

Bangalore, Sep 12, 2013, DHNS:

Damaging City roads badly, rain this month has already exceeded the September average.

With more than half a month still to go, the City will get only wetter. According to the Meteorological Department, the average rainfall in September in Bangalore is 211.7 mm, which the City had exceeded in the last 12 days.

Since September 1, Bangalore received 271.7 mm rain. The amount of rain received this month is the third highest in the last 27 years for this month. In 1986, the City had recorded an all-time high rainfall of 516.6 mm in September. In 2009, the City received 345.8 mm rain this month.

The Meteorological Department has predicted heavy rainfall in the next couple of days.Met Director B Puttanna said the City is likely to receive at least 70 mm rain in the next few days and could exceed the levels of September 2009.

Roads in a shambles

The impact of the heavy rainfall is evident everywhere. Roads have been washed away at many places while huge potholes have appeared on many other roads. Old Madras Road has developed crater-like potholes, giving nightmares to commuters. Mayor B S Sathyanarayana said he was aware of the poor condition of roads in the City.

“We had planned to start filling potholes from Wednesday,” he said.

“But the heavy downpour washed away our plans. We will have to wait for the rain to stop. Once normalcy returns, we will repair all the roads and fill the potholes.”

A senior BBMP official said the Palike is not able to carry out pothole filling in the day time due to heavy traffic while heavy rainfall is obstructing the work at night.“We will have to wait for clear skies to work on the City roads,” said the officer.